Shaun of the Dead (2004) on Netflix
Shaun's colleagues disrespect him, his girlfriend Liz has ended things, and his evenings belong to the Winchester, where he drinks with his best friend Ed. Then London's dead come back.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.8/10644,875 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Shaun is 29 and works as a sales advisor in Crouch End. His colleagues show him no respect, he does not get along with his stepfather Phillip, and his girlfriend Liz ends the relationship after he promises to improve himself but fails to arrange a proper anniversary date. He drinks with Ed, his slacker best friend and roommate, at the Winchester, his local pub. Pete, who shares the house with them, complains of a bite from a mugger and tells Shaun to stop depending on Ed and sort out his life. The next day the dead overrun London. Shaun and Ed notice only when two of them appear in the garden.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Edgar Wright had the idea of playing Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" over a scene of extreme violence in Shaun of the Dead, and Simon Pegg said the pub fight was choreographed to the song before it had been cleared, so they wrote to Brian May and begged to use it.
- Kate Winslet was approached to play Shaun's girlfriend in Shaun of the Dead and met with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg to discuss the role, but she turned it down; Wright later said he was relieved, as her fame would have capsized the film.
- Helen Mirren was originally approached to play Shaun's mother Barbara but turned it down with a note that she would rather play other, funnier characters; the part went to Penelope Wilton, chosen for her work on the sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles.
- George A. Romero watched Shaun of the Dead alone in a Florida cinema and called Wright and Pegg to give his approval; impressed, he asked them to cameo in his 2005 film Land of the Dead, where both insisted on playing zombies rather than the more noticeable roles offered.
- Shaun of the Dead started with forty stunt performers playing zombies, but after an online call for fans the production ended up with over 150 zombie extras, plus another fifty children recruited when local kids saw the zombie makeup.
- Wright and Pegg asked various artists for permission to use their records in the scene where Shaun and Ed throw LPs at a zombie; Wright said Sade was the coolest, and that she told them they could trash Diamond Life without hesitation.
- Pegg and Wright pitched Shaun of the Dead to Film4 in late 1999 but the production budget was cut back; Wright then refused to take other television directing jobs until the film was made, which left him in debt for a while.
- The scenes set at the Winchester pub in Shaun of the Dead were shot at the Duke of Albany pub in New Cross, south London; the three-story Victorian pub closed and was turned into flats in 2008.
